'Like a microscopic Predator': Chinese scientists create tiny robotic vacuum to hunt radioactive pollution and clean the world's oceans

Seawater uranium.

• Micromotors actively navigate water to capture uranium instead of relying on passive diffusion
• Light exposure significantly boosts speed and uranium capture efficiency
• Laboratory tests show a high uranium binding capacity per gram

Chinese researchers at the Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes have engineered minuscule robotic vacuum cleaners that propel themselves through water to capture uranium ions from vast seawater reserves.